Inspired by a Family Friend with PTSD, Logan Michael Wrote 'Old Friend' for All Those Still Hurting
Logan Michael grew up in Massachusetts and on country music.
His mother spent her days participating in horse shows around their home state, and when he wasn't at the barn with her, Michael could be found at home playing around with his electric guitar. When Michael was a senior in high school, he became infatuated with the music of Luke Combs, and soon, the aspiring artist found himself borrowing his uncle's acoustic guitar so he could learn some cover songs.
And the rest reads like the history of so many other young artists at the moment, who on a whim decided to share some of their original music on TikTok and found stardom.
"I wrote the song 'Angel Wings' and that was my first really big song," Michael, 21, tells PEOPLE about his 2021 release. "I put out a bunch of stuff before that, just a couple songs I guess, but they never really took off. But after I posted ['Angel Wings'], people were in love with the song. I really worked hard on it. That made me think that maybe I could actually do this."
And Michael goes and proves just that courtesy of "Old Friend."
"I've been close to a lot of service members, some who have passed," Michael says quietly of the song that speaks of the friendship between two people, each battling wars of their own. "One of my buddies was just in Iraq this past year for a whole year."
Cesar Guzman Logan Michael
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Working alongside fellow songwriters Bonnie Dymond and Kat Dahlia, Michael admits that while writing "Old Friend," he was also thinking about a dear friend of the family who served in the military but who ultimately died in a car accident after a battle with PTSD.
"He was my dad's buddy, and he was around a lot when I was young," remembers Michael, whose dad served in the U.S. Navy and who cried "a little bit" the first time he heard "Old Friend." "He was a part of our family."
And in the music video for "Old Friend," it's this family atmosphere that took over on the shoot, in which several veterans were invited to take part.
"It shows the story as much as I can show the story and put it into a video," says Michael, who recently released his debut EP Hope for Tomorrow. "The song is deep. It's really deep. And during the video shoot, I listened to some of the veteran's stories. It was incredible — they were really great people. I thanked all of them for their service."
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Delving deep into his emotions is something that seems to come somewhat naturally for Michael, as his 2022 song "Leave Me Alone" touched on the agony of depression.
"Some people just feel like they shouldn't talk about this sort of stuff, but I don't know, it's just the way I write," says Michael, who has been dating his girlfriend for the past three years. "I feel like when you put emotions onto paper, everybody understands and probably feels the same way. They really relate to what I'm saying."
